Elderly woman’s home still damaged, THA ‘awaiting funds’
Black Immigrant Daily News
THA secretaries Ian Pollard, left, and Terance Baynes, right, reassure Bethany resident Marjorie Taylor after her house was damaged during the passage of a tropical wave in June. FILE PHOTO/DAVID REID –
Almost two months after her small wooden house in Bethany, Tobago, collapsed during bad weather, Marjorie Taylor is still waiting on assistance for the structure to be repaired.
Taylor, 79, of Bethany Avenue, was resting in her house around 4am on June 29 when a part of the structure came crashing down.
Powerful winds, triggered by a potential cyclone, dislodged at least three of the wooden posts that had supported the house.
As a result, appliances, wall plaques, clothes and other items were strewn all over the floor, rendering the doorway to the living room impassable.
Taylor, who lived in the house for the past 20 years, had told Newsday she hoped the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) would help to rebuild the structure.
The elderly woman, who walks with a cane, took temporary shelter at her sister’s home in Bethel.
THA Secretary of Settlements, Public Utilities and Rural Development Ian Pollard, Secretary of Community Development, Youth Development and Sport Terance Baynes and officials from the Tobago Emergency Management Agency had visited Taylor to assess the damage to the house.
At that time, Taylor’s fallen home was among 11 reports to the TEMA after heavy rain and strong winds associated with the tropical wave, affected several villages on the island.
On Tuesday, Taylor’s brother, Aldwyn, said help has not been forthcoming.
“Is the same way everything is. Nobody eh come back to say nothing and enlighten we. It just remain the same,” he told Newsday.
Aldwyn said Taylor is still staying with her sister.
“Marjorie is by a sister in Bethel but she just want to come back in she place. She just fussing, fussing all the time, saying she want to go home.”
He said he does not feel good about the situation.
“Is meh sister and I want to see her come back home.”
Aldwyn said the house should have already been repaired.
“But nothing eh do. They say within a two to three months things supposed to happen and they would bring men to undertake the responsibility. Up to now time just running, month after month and nothing eh happening. We just remain the same way.”
He said he does not know who to talk to.
“Right now, I am in limbo. I do not have numbers for any of the secretaries because I had left it up to them when they came. So I didn’t bother about asking for any number.
Contacted for a response by Newsday, Pollard said, via WhatsApp, the division is “awaiting funding from budgets.”
NewsAmericasNow.com
